Gregory Porter: 'The Word 'Political' Doesn't Scare Me'

08/11/2016 09:22 am ETUpdated
Aug 12, 2017

Grammy Award winning jazz vocalist Gregory Porter has never shied away from political conversations in his music. On his fourth album Take Me To The Alley the singer ventures into the values of compassion, understanding, and support, for the downtrodden, values instilled in him by his late mother while growing up in Bakersfield, California. In doing so, Porter follows in the footsteps of some of his favorite artists like Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, and Bill Withers. "These artists laid down a pallet of genius for us to look at and to realize that, in every artistic endeavor, we should draw inspiration from and make commentary about the environment that we're in."